But today, as then, much of the issue revolves around life and death.

The dozens of students and faculty, now in their fourth day of occupying the Bachman Hall administration building, fear that some of the research planned by the Navy is for weapons.

Physics professor John Madey said the university needs a better understanding of what the Navy wants from UH, and full documentation of the Navy proposal, including whether it involves classified research.

"If it was without the baggage of weapons research and restrictions on competition, to my mind 95 percent of the problems would evaporate," said Madey, one of those protesting the proposed University Affiliated Research Center. "The principal concern has been about weapons research that would support the war-fighting requirements of the Navy."

In launching negotiations with the Pentagon and Navy, Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert has said this opportunity would vault UH into the echelon of first-tier universities, and would advance the university in four core competencies: ocean science, astronomy, physics and engineering.

And it would bring $50 million in research money over the next five years to add to both equipment and laboratories.

"Everyone talks about wea-pons of mass destruction," Englert said. "We probably won't even get close to that. But if you look at how terrorists operate as suicide bombers, car bombers and others, sensor technology is something very important to understand in terms of where an explosive device is. These are types of things we could possibly be engaged in."

But protesters also decry the further "militarization" of Hawai'i through this proposal, and the assaults they say it would make on academic freedom, with classified research not allowed the same public scrutiny as other academic research.

In a position paper released Friday, opponents said:

• Military weapons-related research is incompatible with the strategic plan, core values and educational mission of UH.

• Establishment of a UARC would "compound the historical injustices committed by U.S. forces against Native Hawaiians" as well as fuel military expansion with its negative effects on the land and people.

• Military secrecy subverts academic freedom.

• A UARC would divert resources from other research opportunities and impose restrictions on the types of research that may be pursued.

• Recent audit reports indicate that the UH administration is unable to handle proper processing of existing research contracts.

• The process has been flawed, without proper consultation with the public until after significant decisions had been made.

With emotions escalating at the university and opposition to the UARC proposal hardening, UH Interim President David McClain has attempted to defuse the situation by asking to meet with protesters.

While McClain would not make any commitments about an administration decision on the Navy proposal, he has promised protesters a fair hearing. Even then, graduate student Ikaika Hussey, one of the protest leaders, complained that McClain was hearing "but he wasn't listening."

Manoa administrators say that much misinformation is swirling about and they have tried to put it to rest in three public forums at the university and in meetings with other groups on and off campus. In speaking with The Advertiser editorial board recently, chancellor Englert and vice chancellor for research Gary Ostrander said it is likely that no classified research would be done at all through the UARC.

They said the university would always retain the power to say no to research it did not want on campus, and faculty researchers would never be forced to undertake anything they did not wish to.

"The faculty member can say 'No, I don't want to do it,' and that's the end of it," Ostrander said. "We're committed to a process where all task orders will be reviewed, but if a task order were to propose a weapon of mass destruction we would turn it down. And if there are serious impediments to publication, we would turn it down."

Four other universities nationwide also serve as UARCs — Penn State University, University of Texas-Austin, University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University.

"When you look at the bulk of classified research (they do) it's not testing sarin gas or building a missile platform, it's modeling oceanographic data," Ostrander said. "That's the type of work the University of Washington does and we're most similar to this."

Nor would there be an edifice built to house such research; rather, the money would come in grants to specific researchers for projects that may already be under way.

"It's not a situation if you have this kind of funding the Navy is going to take over your lab, take over your program," Ostrander said. "But the fact is that the U.S. government can come in and classify any work or any research at any time."

At the November Board of Regents meeting at which regents gave conditional approval for Manoa administrators to begin negotiations with the Navy, the Native Hawaiian Kuali'i Council, which also serves as an advisory group to the chancellor, expressed strong opposition.

"Do not prostitute our home for money," said council member Manu Ka'iama. "The military has done more to damage our lands than anything else, including the bombing of Pearl Harbor."

Englert acknowledged that opposition from Native Hawaiian groups may have no resolution.

"I understand the points," he said. "But it's not a military installation, not the militarization of anything. For us it's almost like business as usual."

Ostrander said that of the approximately $300 million in research grants that came to the university last year, about $60 million came from the Department of Defense. Four UH researchers are conducting research that has been classified.

Under the proposed UARC, Ostrander said, less than $4 million of their research grants — or about 1.5 percent of the total — might fall into the category of classified research under a UARC. "This is just another way of bringing funding in for research we want to do," he said.

Englert said: "For me the UARC is one thing: an agreement with the Navy to do research they're interested in. Most will be basic research."